Whangie Whizz

Standing at the start of the Whangie Whizz I wondered how a midweek short sharp race fitted into the theory of "tapering" for a long race (I am heading to the Highland Fling on Saturday).

I decided that whilst it might not be a "good" idea it certainly wasn’t a "bad" wan. After all I had all of Thursday and Friday to recover!

Quick briefing from Don and we were heading up the hill. I still remember the shock of my first Whangie Whizz …I was very new to hill running and reckoned that most folks would simply walk the section up to the stile before starting to run. I planned not to get into a battle on the traverse so pushed as hard as was possible here. Once on the traverse it was nice watching a couple of folks blowing and puffing like hell getting past but it felt wrong so I ended up battering along here anyway.

Dropping down to the road I heard a yelp as someone found one of the many cow holes with their ankles – nasty.

Along the road and it was time to climb again. Just at the wee steep section, I got a shock to see Iona Robertson trying to sneak past …aye that will be right. I found a bit more and opened up a wee bit of ground again. Round the cairn and time to descend …again. Knowing Iona was very close I tried to up the pace a bit but the guts were complaining big style (possibly due to a late lunch consisting of a bagel with honey). I really enjoyed running back along a rather muddy path. First and second girls got by and I recognised the sound of Iona breathing hard behind me and did the gentleman thing and jumped off the track to let her run through with the possibility of getting another place within her grasp.

Crossed the line just behind the girls and was over the moon to find I was only 12 seconds down on last year (when I had just come home from the Marathon des Sables and was well up for it).

A top evening and HUGE thanks to all fellow Westies for all the organising. Congrats to all who ran!

Now for the long wan oan Saturday…